Polythermal glacier
A thermally complex glacier with both warm and cold ice (q.v.). Typically, warm ice occurs where the ice is thickest as a result of geothermal heating, whilst the snout and margins of the glacier are frozen to the bed.
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Trapridge Glacier, Icefield Ranges, Yukon, Canada, one of many polythermal glaciers that are prone to surging. Photo M. J. Hambrey, 2006. |